Curator Talk | Happiest Place on Earth with Author and Curator Don Hahn

Join us in celebrating Disneyland’s 70th anniversary by welcoming Disney Legend Don Hahn, who, with co-author Christopher Merritt, wrote The Happiest Place on Earth (2025, published by Disney Editions), and who co-curated our latest special exhibition of the same name. Hahn will share tidbits of Disneyland history and offer exclusive insight into the writing of the book and the design of the special exhibition.

Children under 12 years of age must be accompanied by an adult who shall be responsible for the child at all times.

Tickets for Happiest Place on Earth with Author and Curator Don Hahn are available as follows:

• Walt’s Circle Donors: Purchase tickets beginning Wednesday, September 17 at noon PT by emailing membership@wdfmuseum.org.
• Founding, Supporter, and Friend-level members: Purchase tickets beginning Thursday, September 18 at noon PT by emailing membership@wdfmuseum.org.
• All member levels: Purchase tickets online beginning Friday, September 19 at noon PT via the Member Portal.
• Public (non-members): Remaining tickets available online beginning Saturday, October 3 at noon PT.

Upgrade your membership to receive priority access to purchase tickets. For more information, please email the Membership Department at membership@wdfmuseum.org.

Disney Legend Don Hahn has produced some of the most successful animated films of all time, including Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Beauty and the Beast (1991)—the first animated film to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar®—and the global phenomenon The Lion King (1994). 

He studied music and art before starting at Walt Disney Animation Studios in 1976 in the basement of the Inking &
Painting building where the old animation artwork was stored. He soon worked for Disney Legend Wolfgang “Woolie” Reitherman, one of Walt Disney’s legendary “Nine Old Men” who directed One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) and The Jungle Book (1967)—movies that Hahn idolized as a kid. 

Hahn’s credits include The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), The Emperor’s New Groove (2000), Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001), and Maleficent (2014). Three of his films—Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King—are now in the Library of Congress collection as culturally, historically, and esthetically important. 

His documentaries Waking Sleeping Beauty (2009), the seminal film about the Disney renaissance of the late-1980s through the 1990s, and Howard (2018), a biography on the life of influential songwriter Howard Ashman, were shown at film festivals and can now be seen on Disney+. He produced Richard M. Sherman: Songs of a Lifetime for PBS in 2015. He was a founder and Executive Producer of the acclaimed Disneynature nature documentary film series.

Hahn serves on the advisory board of The Walt Disney Family Museum and is a former trustee of PBS SoCal. He has been honored with two Academy Award® nominations, an Emmy for his PBS documentary Freedom Writers: Stories from the Heart, two Golden Globes® for Best Picture, and two honorary doctorate degrees. In 2022, he was inducted as a Disney Legend, awarded to those who have made extraordinary and integral contributions to The Walt Disney Company. 

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